The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for manipulating tobacco leaves, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for converting tobacco leaves into wrappers which can be convoluted around cigar bunches, i.e., around the binders which surround the fillers of semifinished cigars. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in a method and apparatus for removing wrappers from half leaves, i.e., from halves of destalked or destemmed tobacco leaves.
In accordance with the presently prevailing technique, automatic wrapper-rolling unit or units of a cigar making machine receive suitably configurated wrappers from one or more molds wherein cutting instrumentalities remove wrappers from half leaves. Such half leaves are obtained in response to removal of midribs or stems from whole tobacco leaves. Each half leaf is inspected by an attendant who flattens a satisfactory half leaf (i.e., a half leaf which can yield at least one wrapper) and places it into or onto the mold. The attendant then actuates the mechanism which removes a wrapper from the half leaf, and the wrapper is transferred from the mold into the automatic wrapping or rolling unit of the cigar making machine. The remnant of a half leaf which has already yielded a wrapper is inspected by the attendant and is placed back into or onto the mold if the attendant has decided that such remnant is large enough to yield a second warpper. As a rule, a half leaf will yield at least one satisfactory wrapper and, in some instances, two satisfactory wrappers.
A drawback of the just outlined conventional procedure is that the output of the cigar making machine depends on the skill and alertness of the attendant or attendants, i.e., the machine can be operated at maximum capacity only if the half leaves are inspected and placed into or onto the mold or molds by several attendants. Moreover, the inspection and manipulation of half leaves and/or remnants of half leaves is strenuous because it requires continuous concentration on the part of attendants. Still further, an unskilled or clumsy attendant is likely to waste substantial quantities of valuable material, either by placing a fresh half leaf into or onto the mold in such a way that the half leaf yields a single wrapper instead of two, or by failing to notice that the remnant of a half leaf (upon removal of a wrapper) is capable of yielding a further wrapper.